Darth Bizarro said:
I feel often that I'm siting in an odd place with my fandom because I grew up during the 90s when Star Wars was making it's come back and the prequels came out when I was in junior high and high school. I had the original versions on VHS and my friend down the street had the special editions, and I use to always consider those versions to be some sacred treasure because I couldn't watch those whenever I wanted. I remember running out and spending my allowance to buy the junior novelization of Phantom Menace and reading through it before the movie was released because I was to excited. In fact, me and my friends actually went to see Revenge of the Sith on the same evening we had our last day of school. So for me growing up, it was the classic version, the special editions, and the prequels that informed my youth. I have a sense of nostalgia for both "old" and "new" Star Wars that I'll never be able to break. As a gamer too, my favorite Star Wars games were the classic Super Star Wars games for SNES and the N64 era Shadows of the Empire, Rogue Squadron, Episode 1 Racer, and Battle for Naboo. Both versions of Star Wars are there, and they are never going away, and I never want them to.
I have good memories of seeing Revenge of the Sith about 50 times during the Summer it came out too, and it was, undoubtedly, the best of the Prequels and does have its good moments. Furthermore, Episode I did have some spectacular video games released with it. Especially the arcade pod-racer game which I forget the name of. However, as a child, the originals were always my favorites, and were never questioned as the pinnacles of cinematic entertainment in my youth. I thought the Episode I film was really weird and unusual at the time, and when I first saw it at 6 I didn't really think it was "real" (as in part of the canon storyline), more like an alternate past or kid's movie showing a "nice little boy Darth Vader". For Episode II, at that point I...well "awakened" so to say and found Natalie Portman/Padme to be quite...palatable...
I genuinely loved ROTS, but the excessive CGI, awful Grevious, and the bad acting from old Hayden just doesn't work for me. Does it lead up well to the original 1977 Star Wars...no. Do I imagine Hayden beneath the helmet in the classic movies? Heck no. I tried...but it just isn't there. The OT and the PT are totally separate vehicles...never intertwining very well. Sadly, Lucas thinks they do and tries to refit the OT to fit in with the much lesser PT. Sorry, but that's just not going to flow for me!